10,000 man camp proposed for Atlin – NH report gives overview of problems faced by remote camps

There are 1,809 industrial campsites in northern British Columbia and a proposal has been made for a 10,000 man camp near Atlin, to supply workers for several mines proposed in that area.
We learned this from a recently published report by Greg Thibault, manager, Public Health Protection, Northern Health.
At the outset, the goal of this report was to provide a profile of industrial camps in northern BC. “However, the scope of this report has evolved and expanded beyond its initial focus. Through this work, broader issues and challenges for Northern Health related to industrial camps are identified,” Thibault said.
First issues raised were the implications for healthcare infrastructure and use of services, mental health and overall well-being of workers and their families, problematic substance use and its impacts, public health and communicable diseases, and social and health impacts on host communities.
Northern Health is responsible for implementing and enforcing environmental and public health regulations in industrial camps and the Northern Health environmental health officers visit the camps to review and issue permits for drinking water, sewage, and food services.
These camps are a cost-effective way of accommodating workers and their use by companies to house an increasingly mobile and transient workforce.
“It is clear from the issues and challenges identified in this document for Northern Health regarding industrial camps, communities, and health extends well beyond the responsibilities outlined in these regulations,” Thibault notes.
“It is increasingly difficult for Northern Health staff to identify and interact with companies overseeing new and improved existing camps. Researchers and government personnel have also experienced difficulty in identifying and tracking these camps.”
Issues and challenges with respect to these camps illustrate significant concerns relative to the overall health of the workers and the host communities.
Not all of the 1,809 camps are currently active. 98 major projects ranging from clean energy, mining, oil and gas, results, utilities, and other projects are identified and may also have associated industrial camps. There are 11 operating and 27 anticipated new ones. Oil and gas camps dominate the Northeast. The Northwest has mainly forest logging camps; however there are 16 new mines proposed for the area. The report has identified 15 Large camps serving the oil and gas sector, 128 medium-sized camps and 1,424 small camps all serving the oil and gas sector in northeastern British Columbia.
“There are 50 current or anticipated major projects for this area, as well as 10 mines. Three are currently operating, likely resulting in the establishment of more camps,” Thibault states.
The report notes that the Environmental Assessment Office, which oversees the certification of major projects related to industrial, energy, and mining projects is currently undergoing some changes and more responsibility will fall to provincial regulators, as a result of changes made by the federal government.
Individual forest districts and BC timber sales offices are responsible for permitting industrial logging camps and entering into contracts with silviculture companies that may also establish camps.
Front Counter BC oversees the permitting of large-scale energy, mining, tourist resort, utilities, and other types of projects.
Mines and Energy oversees the approval of mining in collaboration with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resources, Mines and Energy issues multi-year permits and currently has no systems or capacity to track the state of industrial camps, making this information complicated for public access.
The Oil and Gas Commission and Work Safe BC also play a role.
“Due to the volume of camps in the number of anticipated new industrial projects in the coming years, there is a sense of urgency to address health-related impacts of industrial camps,” Thibault notes.
“However, the lack of information and knowledge directly related to industrial camps and health, specifically in Northern BC, is glaring.”
A study of the fly-out and drive-in drive-out camps was conducted in rural Australia, the United States, Canada, and Northern BC. Although a number of positive impacts from resource development and related industrial camps are apparent, such as economic development, high wages, and increased real estate values, the focus of this initial report is the health promotion related challenges of industrial camps.
Workers housed on oil platforms (similar to the isolation of remote industrial camps) in the North Sea compared their accommodations to a prison like setting because there was little to do in their downtime. Lives in silviculture camps are described as lawless – having no curfews, speed limits, and no one to curtail the consumption of alcohol. Oil and gas camps in the Fort St. John area were noted to have an atmosphere of partying all night, where workers are introduced to and entered the drug scene, and let older partiers set the standard for new workers at the camps. Overall, these types of camps can have negative consequences for individuals, families, and the communities where they live, the report notes.
Conditions in the camps require that workers leave their homes and families for a period of time, ranging from 12 to 18 hour work days for shifts at 21 to 28 days, or as long as 42 days in camp with 14 days off, or longer. Shift work impacts all aspects of health, including: obesity, depression, problematic use of substances – including alcohol, sleeps disorders, other types of illnesses and emotional distress. Shift work also puts pressure on workers with not enough time at home to deal with domestic issues and too much time in camp (or on the oil platform) to think. This can lead to depression.
The report notes that workers’ jobs are stressful and often dangerous. Another source of anxiety or stress for workers often is the fear that an injury would result in not being able to work, loss of pay, and financial hardship. Overall, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of job stresses and their consequences for rural workers’ health.
The report notes that drug and alcohol use, both on and off the job, leads to familial tensions and problems on the job. Drug and alcohol use and impairment poses a risk of accidents and injury, anxiety and emotional stress, as well as long-term health effects.
This also proves problematic for host communities. Workers are “readily visible on their days off when they can be found engaged in selected places in local hotels and bars.”
From 2004 – 2005, the Peace River Region in northeastern BC had the second worst serious drug offence rates in the province.
The report notes that remote communities in northern BC already struggle to provide social welfare and healthcare services. An ageing normal population, coupled with increased industrial activity and rapid population growth from an influx of new workers, places increased demands on and overwhelms existing infrastructure and health services. Often the focus is on getting workers back to the job rather than looking at health promotion and prevention.
Access to healthcare services may be an issue for some workers. One study noted the provincial policies on healthcare insurance and workers compensation may affect the availability of and access to health services (such as a general health exam) in host communities.
Although sanitation and communicable disease was not a focus of the initial literature review, they are mentioned in the research. One study noted that personal hygiene and the silviculture camps are often “mediocre”. International studies on sexually transmitted diseases in temporary migrant workers suggest that this “may be an important health concern relevant to the context of intra-national Canadian worker mobility as well.”
One study focussed specifically on sexually transmitted infections in young oil and gas workers in a community in northeast BC. They found high and increasing rates of sexually transmitted illness linked to a highly mobile workforce and related to factors such as drug and alcohol binging.
The report identifies many negative aspects of industrial camps, and targets three main themes: mental health first aid, problematic substance use policies and programs, and healthcare collaboration and partnership. It refers briefly to industrial camps in Australia and other parts of Canada.
Referring to the websites of industry operating in northern BC one company specifically identified were safety inspections in relation to ensuring that standards for water quality, noise and chemical exposures, were being met. Imperial Oil also has a general health policy that refers to fitness workers in the provision of one-tier health promotion programs related to worker productivity. Companies have health and safety as their vision and mission statements.
The report notes that in Grande Prairie, Alberta, there is a Northern Addictions Centre that assists other service providers to “regenerate employees back into the workforce”.
In conclusion the report states the level of current and proposed industrial and resource development activity in northeastern BC and the mobile transient nature of the work force, means that industrial camps will continue to be established.
“The biggest lesson learned through the compilation of this report is that we need more information in order to address complex health and community impacts related to industrial camps with innovative strategies” the report notes.
It proposes a second paper in this series to provide an overview of community and economic development in northern BC. The goal is to illustrate how changes in our region have moved through different stages over time in relation to changes in our economy and resource development opportunities.
It makes no mention of integrating these camps into the northern towns already in existence.
The third paper is to review health and economic development, to identify the impact on health and health services utilisation, the impacts of shift work in isolation, eating habits and physical activity, communicable diseases, addictions, health and safety, motor vehicle crashes, and access to health care in the north.
It is apparent that the traditional definition of industrial camps being remote and isolated from adjacent communities is not always the case in northern BC.
Companies and their workers and subcontractors are making arrangements to stay in hotels and houses and communities.
It is a natural fit to broaden our scope and reframe the work to also include transient workers as a focus.
This primary work also points to the importance of business practices (i.e. housing arrangements for workers) and the relationship to communities and health care.
At this time, further studies are proposed to better understand the impacts of these types of business models on communities and health service utilisation.

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